• SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Everything we put up with in life is a choice, even if the only other option is bad (i.e. suicide). People in a bad situation may say that they choose it, only in order to maintain a sense of control and personal agency. It’s not really meaningful to say that some homeless people choose to live that way, unless we know what their alternatives are. And if they have options that most people would consider better, I’d argue that they’re not what most people mean by the homeless problem.

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        No, I mean they have told me they like living like that; not by consequences of their own actions. Like modern day Diogenes. Just a super minimalistic lifestyle that includes not having a home. There is a scene for that kinda thing in San Francisco.

        • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          I’ll grant that California might be different because of the climate, but I’ve heard the same thing from people here in the Midwest, and, well, I’m not sure that I believe them. I got the sense that they didn’t leave behind privilege and wealth to live a minimalist life. In a nutshell, they couldn’t just at a whim decide to give it up and do something different.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        Suicide isn’t an option. I know nobody will believe me, but I’ve done it. I just woke up in a slightly different parallel universe: this one.

        Other people die. The self does not. Death only exists out there.

        • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          9 months ago

          Yikes. That must have been quite the shock! In any case, I still figure that everything we put up with in life is a choice, although the bad alternatives might be prison, starvation, torture, ostracism, or any number of bad things that happen to living people.